Glod, Dâmbovița

Glod was a shooting location for the 2006 mockumentary film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, representing Borat Sagdiyev's fictional home village of Kuzcek, Kazakhstan. The villagers of Glod were paid the equivalent of four U.S. dollars a day each for their appearances and were told the film would be a documentary about the hardships of rural village life.^[1] According to 20th Century Fox, the movie's comedic nature was obvious to everyone since it included many blatantly absurd and ridiculous scenes, such as one of a cow living inside someone’s house.^[2] Fox claims that the production team and star Sacha Baron Cohen each donated $5,000 to the town, as well as paid a location fee, and bought computers, school supplies, and business supplies for the residents. Two residents of Glod, Nicolae Staicu and Spiridon Ciorbea (seen in the film as the town's mechanic and abortionist), hired the services of Ed Fagan to sue the producers of the film, but the lawsuit was thrown out by U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in a hearing in early December 2006 on the ground that the charges were too vague and nebulous to stand up to legal examination in court.^[3] Many villagers were furious about their portrayal in the mockumentary. When an ABC News crew visited the town, they were shooed away with brooms. Spiridon later told the crew, “If I see Borat, I will kill him with my own hands.”^[4]